“TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING”

“It is universally agreed that exercise is a good thing for both body, and  mind.

But, to apply the old adage, too much of anything is good for nothing;  and this applies to fitness training.

I see many very keen and highly motivated folks who beat the stuffing out of themselves in the quest for improved sporting performance.

Unfortunately there are many adverse consequences of over-training; from repetitive strain injuries to suppressed immune system function.

So one ends up carrying injuries that don’t ever quite get right, along with recurrent ‘flu’s, fatigue conditions,  etc.

This is all very counter-productive to the goals of either overall wellness or improved performance.

Well, on top of these well-known side effects  of over-training, we can now add Atrial Fibrillation!  And AF is a beauty!

It means that one of the chambers of your heart starts to twitch in a random, uncoordinated manner; a bit like an epileptic episode but in the heart.

This can result in the generation of blood clots; these head straight for your brain and a stroke ensues.

And AF generated strokes have a quite a low survival rate one year out.

I’m pitching this at the triathalon/iron man fraternity especially;  these notoriously demanding events (not called ‘iron man’ for naught!) have a propensity for inducing over-training.

This is especially so in those of us who also have a day job, family, etc. and thus probably won’t have the rest and recovery time of a professional athlete.

So…..though some is good, more is not necessarily better!”

Further reading:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825494

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